As much as the team behind this film wants to convince you to the contrary, there is barely anything remotely interesting going on here. This uneventful retelling of the classic fairy tale is outstanding in the visual department, namely cinematography and effects, but that’s because, like many other movies in this age of fast, easily digestible and ultimately hollow entertainment, it shuns an engrossing story in favor of sensory spectacle.

The best bits are whenever Charlize Theron is on screen, despite her performance devolving into hilariously bad camp. It’s hard to conceive that this is the same Oscar-winning actress that shined in Monster, North Country and Young Adult but, at least, she injects the fun into a drab affair. We miss her scenery-chewing mostly during the middle act, especially because the very limited acting range of Chris Hemsworth and Kristen Stewart has never been so exasperating!

Besides the poisoned apple (which barely makes an appearance in this version), another important icon of the story is the notion of “true love’s kiss”, the biggest romantic element. SWATH’s three writers, including Drive scribe Hossein Amini, take the trouble of setting up not one but two romantic subplots for our underdeveloped Snow White only to drop them suddenly and completely.

To appropriately take in most movies, especially summer blockbusters, the viewer has to suspend disbelief but this pushes the limits. Is that mirror badly calibrated? Is this medieval, grim take on Snow White set in an alternate world where Kristen Stewart is more beautiful than Charlize Theron? Those are two of many questions you’ll probably ask yourself (maybe aloud) during the very slow 127 minutes of runtime.

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35 thoughts on “Snow White & The Huntsman [2012]”

Hey Fernando, glad to see you back man! “…the viewer has to suspend disbelief but this pushes the limits” Yep that’s what I thought too, and I was already willing to let the fact that the Queen already IS fairer than Snow White, but there are way more issues I find with the movie. I do think Kristen is by far the WORST part about the movie.

Thank you, Ruth! I missed blogging and I’m glad I have some more time on my hands to watch movies and reviewing! Personally, I don’t think Kristen by herself was the worst part. The acting was horrendous all around! hehe

Thanks 🙂 It’s great being back to blogging! And yeah. tell me about it! Avengers disappointed me greatly; this one too but I wasn’t looking forward to it as much. I’ve read mixed reviews about Prometheus and it looks like it doesn’t live up to the hype. That’s the saddest one, because it’s my most anticipated of 2012. Hope TDKR, Lawless and Les Misérables don’t let me down.

Sorry I haven’t been around, I was very busy with school, but I’m back now 🙂 Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed my review of SWATH. Glad it helped in convincing you to save your money and stream it later! hehe. Let’s hope K-Stew doesn’t ruin On The Road, she CAN be good sometimes, like in Into The Wild or Panic Room.

Thanks, Mark! Reading my review I realize I was a bit harsh. It was boring and the writing was very bad but I didn’t stress enough that I loved the visuals, art direction and costume design. That’s what saved it from being a complete waste of time for me.

I just realized that this movie came out for the 75th anniversary of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I’m not sure if that was intended, though; you’d expect a 25th, 50th, and 100th anniversary film, but not a 75th.